Multimedia content may be delivered from a first user device to a second user device using a wireless network and/or a wired network. Multimedia content may be delivered using packetized transport services. Packetized transport services are being rapidly adopted and are replacing circuit switched services for wireless network communications and wired communications.
However, packetized transport services may introduce disadvantages compared to circuit switched services. For example, the length of time to deliver packets from the first user device to the second user device may vary, packets may arrive out of order, and some packets may be lost during transmission (e.g., some packets may never reach the second user device).
A jitter buffer at a receiving terminal (e.g., the second user device) may be used to reduce jitter and to receive packets that arrive out of order. However, the size of the jitter buffer may impact communication quality. For example, a relatively large jitter buffer may reduce a number of discarded (e.g., lost) packets and may reduce disruptions in service (e.g., video freezing, audio dropouts, etc.). However, a relatively large jitter buffer may also degrade (e.g., increase) latency. On the other hand, a relatively small jitter buffer may improve (e.g., reduce) latency. However, a relatively small jitter buffer may result in increased packet loss (e.g., discontinuous streaming). Thus, a design of the jitter buffer may trade off latency for packet loss. For example, increasing the size of the jitter buffer increases latency and reduces the chance of packet loss due to late packet delivery.